Direct current (DC) offset estimation is carried out over each time slot (burst) in a time division synchronous code division multiple-access (TDSCDMA) system. The time slot consists of four portions: two data fields, one midamble field and a guard period (GD). The data fields have 352 chips each, the midamble 144 chips and the GP 16 chips. A chip is a symbol which has been already modulated for transmission. The conventional DC offset estimation method processes the data fields and estimates the DC offset by averaging the data symbols or chips. The data symbols or chips (from two data fields) in each burst are fed to a DC offset block to generate DC offset estimation which is used to compensate the whole burst. The compensated midamble is then passed to a channel estimation block to generate channel impulse response (CIR) estimation. Finally, both CIR estimation and compensated data are forwarded to a joint detector (JD). This approach works well statistically when there are many, many chips per field but not so well in TDSCDMA receivers where the data fields are 704 chips. In that case the accuracy is not as good as desired.